Well I looks like my quest to convert my Quickbooks for Windows files to my Mac have met with deflated ends. As it turns out, I most likely have “errors” in my Windows Files that prevent me from using the handy auto conversion feature. So it looks like that is I want to switch from Quickbooks for WIndows to Quickbooks for Mac, I’ll have to do it the hard way, which involves setting up Quickbooks for Mac, and manually entering in data.
I’ve done this before, and I’ve not liked it. A few years ago when I decided to try the ill-fated “Microsoft Small Business Accounting” package, I spent the better part of a year in pain and confusion. Both before and after that test I had used Quickbooks, but the transition away from and then back to Quickbooks was difficult, and in essence broke my consistency of data. I looks like I will have to go down that road again if I want to move completely to Mac.
On the bright side, the conversation back to Quickbooks for Windows from Quickbooks for Mac will most likely be an easy one, should I decide to do so.
It will be the first of the year before I can give a comprehensive review of Quickbooks 2009 for Mac, and even then I’ll want to use it for a few weeks just to make sure I’m honest about it. On the face of it, Quickbooks for Mac 2009 shows some nice cosmetic improvements over Quickbooks for Mac 2007, but the cosmetics seem to be all they have done. Quickbooks for Mac still lags WAY behind the same version year for Windows.
I’ve never really understood why Intuit seems to cripple it’s Mac Products. On the one hand it seems obvious that because Mac’s have a smaller market share, then few resources should be spent in developing for it. However, when you talk about feature and usability implantation, this argument does not hold. Most of the hard leg work in programing comes from the developing the underlying logic and code, which should be mostly interchangeable between PC and Mac. Unless of course Intuit has completely forked the development of Windows and Mac versions, in which case Intuit is showing astoundingly poor judgment.
I’ve considered using other accounting packages for Mac, but the simple fact is that Intuit has cornered the market in Bank Data downloads, and this is a huge time saver for me.
